In a medium mixing bowl, sift together flour, baking powder, salt, cinnamon and ginger. In a large mixing bowl, using a mixer on medium speed, beat together butter, brown sugar and maple syrup until creamy - about 1-2 minutes; beat in vanilla and egg until combined. Reduce mixer speed to low and gradually beat in flour mixture until combined. Beat in carrot, coconut, pecans, pineapple and raisins until combined.

Drop flat, round spoonfuls of batter onto cookie sheets, about an inch apart. Bake 25-30 minutes or until light golden brown and firm. Turn oven off and leave cookies in oven for 1 hour or until crisp. Cool on wire racks.

I've never had a hummingbird cake and I would never judge having to go out and buy a cake either. At least you tried right? Too funny about Elmer and the romance novels! Love it. As always, your cookies sound fantastic. Love the picture of you in the wheelbarrow by the way.

I find that when I cake gets ruined, a clever thing to do is take the pieces and make them into a trifle. No one notices the cake is a mess and you get more gooey goodness for your trouble. I could see your cake being layered wiht pineapple and vanilla pudding and maybe splash banana liquer over the cake layers.

Such a wonderful Easter! I wish I could get my family to do more group games too. At least a little frisbee would be nice! You all had something very special to celebrate iwth the new baby.

LoL! This post cracked me up! My favorite part was the picture of the harlequin romance and the picture of the pinata with Eric next to it. Good times :) I like this Elmer guy. I'm sorry your cake for your mom didn't turn out well! I found an awesome recipe for carrot cake cupcakes on TastyKitchen.com, but I'm sure you have your own so I won't link ya. Your crisps look delicious! :)

I love reading your posts, Emily, you always make me smile, which is definitely needed at the moment. It looks like your easter was fantastic, and those cookies look very yummy. I love c arrot cake anything. I need to make a carrot cake. Maybe that will be my next endeavor! For now, I have a lovely batch of frozen cookie dough in the freezer that I keep baking up one at a time for dessert, because warm and gooey chocolate chip cookies are on the top of my favorite foods list!

The cookies look great and sound different! When you mentioned about the Hummingbird cake not coming out so great, it gave me comfort!!! I'm not alone with my disasters!!! lol...Elmer sounds like a character and lots of fun. How cute that he reads romance novels!

Sounds like you had a fab Easter. Happy belated BD to your Mom! A spa pedicure more than makes up for the cake. Some great photos there. Peeps are new to me - the other day I saw Mad men pepps on FB, and that is the first time I'd heard of them. Love these cookies - yum!

Sorry your hummingbird can didn't pan out as expected, but your carrot cake crisps more than made up for it!

Sounds like you had a lot of Easter fun...and I think it's a scream your step-grandfather reads Harlequin romances. My mother did too. I inherited a huge box of them...mostly by Margaret Way. Really old ones, too. Elmer would love them!